Our starting point for the BIRCH part of our history is with James BIRCH
who married a Mary JACKSON, althoughwe do not yet know if or how she might
be related to the JACKSON family member who first settled at Urker. As
it stands right now, the first verified link between the Urker JACKSONs
and the BIRCH family is established three generations later. In short,
here is how it goes (although you might like to consult the printout of
the family tree to follow it through):

In 1725, James purchased the farm known as Birch Grove (or Birchgrove).
This farm was on 176 acres located in the Parish of Tullylish, Co. Down,
Ireland. James bought it from a John BIRCH who had himself been granted
the land by Sir John MAGILL on 13 April 1692. (SOURCE: The Birch Family
of Birchgrove, Parish of Tullylish . Aiken McClelland. THE IRISH GENEALOGIST,
Vol III, No 5 (1960).)

(We don’t yet know the relationship between John & James
BIRCH, but I suspect that the land grant had to do with the land transfers
effected at the conclusion of the war between King William and King James
(often called the Jacobite or the Williamite War – depending on
one’s politics). Although less land changed hands at this time than
during the post-Cromwell era, it was still part of the ongoing disenfranchisement
of the resident and largely Catholic population.)

John BIRCH (1711-1773), the son of Mary JACKSON & James BIRCH married
his first wife - a Miss BAXTER - and they had a child Elizabeth BIRCH
(1733-1812). This Elizabeth BIRCH had two husbands. The first was William
BREAKEY (of whom more later in the chapter in the BREAKEY family). Their
child, Elizabeth BREAKEY, was born in 1758 – the month as yet is
unknown. Given that they married 3 March 1758 and their daughter was born
before the year was out, they either started the marriage pregnant or
else conceived within the first month or two of marriage. Whatever combination
of joy and sorrow was their lot, less than two years later (and quite
likely less than a year later), William BREAKEY was dead.

When baby Elizabeth was two years old and her father dead, her mother,
on March 14, 1760, married Alexander GILLMER (or GILMORE). The descendents
of this marriage - from their three known children - figure in many of
the later family intermarriages.

At age 23, Elizabeth BREAKEY married Thomas BRADFORD (and we will revisit
the BRADFORD line later in the tale). Thomas was the son of John BRADFORD
and Barbara COULTER (COULTER being another name which surfaces from time
to time). They married 27 August 1781 and their first known child was
born circa 1785.

Now, we are getting closer to the JACKSON connection.

Elizabeth BRADFORD - the daughter of Thomas BRADFORD and Elizabeth BREAKEY
- married Benjamin OLIVER (more on the OLIVERs later) of Killynure, Co.
Armagh. She didn’t enjoy a long life, dying at age 40, but she gave
birth to five known children, the youngest of whom was Elizabeth “Eliza”
OLIVER. “Eliza” was ten years old when her mother died on
12 July 1825. Given where Elizabeth (BRADFORD) OLIVER was buried, it seems
that the family had strong roots in Kane, Co. Louth. I suspect that the
connection is to the BRADFORD family holdings in Dundalk, Co. Louth -
in particular, the townland "Cavananore".

Eliza OLIVER would go on to marry David JACKSON and live at Urker, Crossmaglen.
It is at this point that the fog of JACKSON history lifts a little. But
more of that later.

Backing up a moment, other stories of this extended family help to give
us a sense of the economic, political and social realities of their time.
We know quite a few tantalizing bits from the following the half brothers
and sisters of Elizabeth BIRCH (b. 1733).

James Jackson BIRCH

succeeded his father-in-law as the minister of the First
Dromora Presbyterian Congregation. He bought his younger brother -
Thomas Ledlie BIRCH’s - farm on 19 June 1798 for £500
when Thomas Ledlie BIRCH was forced into exile for his part in the
1798 uprising. On March 1799 he resold it for £1,111 –
a 55% return on investment in less than a year!

George BIRCH

was a surgeon in India and owned lands in Co. Down at Ballybeen,
Ballyroney and Ballybrick (see map above). He was known as “a
staunch Royalist” and was effective in winning exile for his
brother, Thomas Ledlie BIRCH (in lieu of a harsher penalty),. He
was also “a respected physician in Newtownards, a friend of
Lord Castlereagh and a captain of the Newtownards Yeomanry.
Both his sons, however, had fought on the rebel side at Ballynahinch,
and one of them, John BIRCH was killed in the 1798 Irish Rebellion
(a fight for tenant’s rights initiated by the United Irishmen)
at the Battle of Saintfield on 10 June 1798. SOURCE: p. 250 The
Summer Soldiers: The 1798 Rebellion in Antrim and Down. A.T.Q.
Stewart. Blackstaff Press, Belfast 1995.
Interestingly, there was also a Lt. BIRCH on the side of the King.
This BIRCH survived an earlier battle on 29 May 1798

Isabella Anna Jane BIRCH

married Randal William McDonel JOHNSTON, a descendant of the “Johnstons
of Glynn” – a landed gentry family with connections to
the LESLIE family, one of the large landlords of Monaghan and Down
– and a major factor in Ballybay. (See peerage & Leslie
family tree. Also note that Colonel Charles LESLIE of the Monaghan
Militia was on the Royalist side. See p.39 op. cit.)

Oliver BIRCH

emigrated to America

Mary BIRCH

married the son of a minister.

Thomas Ledlie BIRCH

(1755-1828) was the celebrated “Blubbering Birch” -
the minister of Saintfield on the side of tenant’s rights -
whose history will take up another section because he is such a character
and because of the light which the events of his life sheds on his
times. It was alleged that he was on the side of the insurgents fighting
on 9 June 1798. On the day that his nephew was killed, according to
evidence in his trial, he was preaching at Creevy Rocks, attending
the funeral of a child and burying dead soldiers. After burying the
soldiers, he took those who had helped him to McCreery’s shop
and bought liquor as refreshment for them – obviously not a
Presbyterian of the tee-totalling sort! SOURCE: James McIlhinney,
Saintfield Heritage. 1998